Brady is expected to skate with the Junior-A Carleton Place Canadians in the Canadian Junior Hockey League next season
The intensity has picked up at Florida Panthers Development Camp as the young Cats took the ice on Thursday for the fourth day of workouts.
By the time the second session was finished, it was clear that the players had left their blood, sweat, and tears on the ice.
Literally.
An errant stick, or puck, clipped defenseman Owen Brady in the face when he was next to the goal crease, causing a bit of blood to spill on the ice just as the final practice of the day was wrapping up.
It’ll be a souvenir in the shape of a battle scar for Brady, who has certainly been through worse.
Brady is one of the great stories at development camp.
The 20-year-old Whitby, Ontario native is not only a budding young hockey star, but he’s also a cancer survivor.
Diagnosed at the age of 16, Brady’s promising young hockey career came to a sudden and abrupt halt when a lump on his shin turned out to be a cancerous tumor.
After undergoing surgery and enduring difficult chemotherapy treatments, Brady received the amazing news last month that he was officially cancer-free.
He’d miss two years of hockey before working his way back, playing a season in the Ontario Junior Hockey League before joining the Carleton Place Canadians in the Junior-A Canadian Junior Hockey League.
Now he’s at Panthers Development Camp, and by all indications he’s having the time of his life.
Throughout the week, Brady’s pleasant attitude and hard-working mentality have been apparent.
It hasn’t gone unnoticed by the man running the show, Florida’s AHL head coach Geordie Kinnear.
“Every day out here he always has a smile on his face,” said Kinnear. “He ended up getting cut here at the end with a high stick or visor, but what a positive kid, what a positive attitude. He came to work.”
Kinnear mentioned a conversation he had with Brady earlier in the week, after a particular practice that was heavier than others.
“The hardest day was day two on the ice, and he said, ‘I love those days. I love to work hard,’” Kinnear said. “So what a great story, and I think we can all learn something from a player like that.”
Brady is expected to be back with Carleton Place in the CJHL next season, where he’ll look to continue building his game and pursuing his passion.
We’ll be keeping an eye on where his career path takes him, and if that someday leads him back to the Panthers.